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| 0191 Russia map and flag (1) |
Posted on 01.05.2012, 08.03.2017
After it crushed the army of the Golden Horde in the battle of Kulikovo in 1380, Grand Duchy of Moskow needed only 150 years to finally push aside the Tartar yoke and to gather under his leadership, by persuasion or with the sword, all the Russian provinces. Afterwards, Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar, conquered Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Sibir, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. In the 17th century it continued its territorial growth, with the Cossacks as spearhead, enclosing part of the Ukraine and Eastern Siberia, until the Pacific coast.
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| 2975 Russia map and flag (2) |
Peter the Great proclaimed Russia empire in 1721, and achieved the much desired "Window on the West" on the Baltic, assuring also outlet to the Black Sea and to the Caspian Sea. After the fall of Constantinople (1453), Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire, as the Holy Roman Empire was considered the continuation of the Western Roman Empire. The Tsars coveted Constantinople, on which they called it Tsargrad, but the Ottoman Empire managed to impede Russian expansion in the Balkans over the next two centuries, ceding instead an important part of the northern shore of the Black Sea.
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